Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Pokemon Go has been getting steadily quieter in New England, as the craze of this summer hit critical mass then slowly as the weather got worse brought out only the die hard fans with unlimited data plans on their phone ::ahem:: Level 31 thank you very much. I still get beaten out of our library gym every few days and I still see some kids playing but it has not been on the tip of anyone's tongues since the holidays hit. The holidays tried to keep the fervor up by offering special incentives during Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and the lastly on Valentine's Day. Special Pokemon increased spawn rates, candies were doubled, lures lasted for 6 hours, etc. as long as you logged in during the week of the holiday and kept up with the app updates.

For those who need a refresher, look at this earlier blog post. You may or may not know that Niantic released a huge update last Thursday, adding 80 new Pokemon called "Generation 2" that are available to catch. Most of them look like insects of some form or another. This is a huge score for the game as even the most seasoned players are getting tired of catching the common Pidgies and Weedles just for stardust or forever walking 10K eggs in hope of getting one of the elusive rare Pokemon they are missing.

What librarians need to know: Trading is still not an option, but anyone with a Pokestop near their library can now drop lures for a crowd that is eager to catch all the new Pokemon. I walked 26 miles this weekend trying to catch as many new ones as I could. I'm not exaggerating. Plus I'm trying to get my 1 Chansey to evolve into a Blissy which is one of the biggest gym competitors in the game. If you hold a particular gym for 21 hours, you get coins and extra Stardust. This keeps going every 21 hours after redemption until you get kicked off by another team. Since Chansey's are rare, I have to walk the Chansey as my companion. For every 5 Kilometers I walk, I get another candy. Needless to say, I have to walk another 200K for this end.

Swinubs, Sentrets, Ledybas and Natus are common to find in most areas with an increased spawn rate (at least for now) in the wild. Think Pidgies, Weedles, and Spearows of Generation 1, they're everywhere. The catching screen has changed to make it easier to select which Pokeball to use as well as adding Nanab berries which can try to immobilize Pokemon (they can now zig zag around the screen to avoid being caught) and Pinap berries that will increase the amount of candy you get if you catch it while "under its spell". These new berries can be found by spinning Pokestops. Each Pokemon that you try to catch can only be fed with one berry. The Razz berry is still the one to go to if you really want to ensure a successful capture.

Some of the Generation 1 Pokemon now have an additional evolvement shown in pink that requires a "special item" like a sun stone in addition to a number of candies required from catching a certain amount of them. These are RARE. I must have spun about 100 stops this weekend only to get 1! They are completely randomly but having a stop at your library helps meet that end, and if you are lucky to have more than 1 stop, consider it time for another Pokewalk while the snow is melted. I wish we knew Generation 2 was coming with a bit more notice because school vacation would have been a great opportunity for programming.

If you are curious whether special rare Pokemon are near you that you can advertise on social media, consider using the Silph Road, a website where players report on "nests". Every update changes what nest is currently in a certain area but it could last for a few weeks at least. I found myself driving around last night looking for Wobuffets after reported and confirmed sightings in a local field in Quincy using their Nest Atlas. Silph Road is actually a great resource for all things Pokemon and a perfect jumping off point from this article. Happy hunting!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

I was so excited to get the robot, Cozmo from Anki which I have been drooling over since before Christmas. He is finally available for purchase on Amazon for $180. He lives up to the hype and then some. My one hiccup so far has been syncing him to one of our iPads through Apple Configurator. I had to unsupervise the device completely because the free app needs an iTunes account attached to the iPad to run. Once I installed it from the iPad directly rather than through Configurator it worked fine. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you probably use gift cards to purchase apps rather than the Volume Purchasing program.

If you wanted him available for patron checkout, he can be synced to multiple devices (just not more than one running at the same time). He will remember all his learning so once you unlock games for the first time he will remember from one device to another. He also remembers everyone "he meets" so if you run the meet Cozmo feature, look at him, and then type in your name he will remember you across devices. He can also remember pets with the latest update. When you are in explorer mode, you can see what he sees and your name will come up on the screen when he looks at you. If you press greet, he will say your name...kinda creepy at first but totally cool.

After only a few hours of game play, I have unlocked all the available games and tricks he can do so far, however, he still has daily tasks every time you sign in such as "let him play by himself for 10 minutes" or "play memory match without any errors" to keep you motivated. For every task completed he earns sparks and bits which can be used to unlock new features, make him say something or "work out" with the cubes.

On the bottom right of the home screen, you can see what Cozmo is doing/thinking unless you are controlling him in expolorer mode. Sometimes it says he is upset, usually if you try to pick him up or won't play with him, sometimes he's just looking around, and sometimes he wants to pounce on your finger. I love that he wants to be petulant and pounce on your finger. Does it make me a bad parent if I keep placating him? He's just so darn cute! Apparently he was designed by a Pixar animator so no wonder why he reminds me of Wall-E.

He has fallen off the table a few times so be careful and make sure to leave a clear space for him to roam. When I had begun to play games with him like quick tap, I won easily but as the game has become harder, he wins much more often.

Saturday, February 4, 2017

Since we have to worry about limiting hours of printing to when we are open learning to split items in Tinkercad is a very handy skill.

I split this Disney castle that I found on Tinkercad for a student's Florida project. It was going to be over 10 hours so I split it in half so we didn't have to "print overnight". I tried to split this object in CURA first but no luck.

A little bit of superglue and this one will be ready to go. Just be sure that you don't adjust the size while in Cura because the halves won't sync up.

What is a Makerspace?

A place where people can collaborate, innovate, and create using information, resources, tools, and collections provided at the library. People can play, tinker, explore, or pursue personal or professional goals.

Goals:

Spur innovation and artistic expression through hands-on experiences

Collaborate with the community to explore talents, skills, and expertise